Coach claims Israel Adesanya will never get over Sean Strickland loss: ‘He fought badly’
City Kickboxing head coach, Eugene Bareman has claimed his long-time student, Israel Adesanya will never get over his championship loss to Sean Strickland last year in Australia — fresh from a second consecutive defeat against the incumbent, Dricus du Plessis at UFC 305 this month.
Adesanya, a former two-time undisputed middleweight gold holder, headlined UFC 305 earlier this month in his return to Perth, suffering a fourth round rear-naked choke submission loss to arch-rival, du Plessis in their undisputed title battle ‘Downunder’.
Eugene Bareman admits Israel Adesanya is not over Sean Strickland loss
And sharing his thoughts on Israel Adesanya’s acceptance of his loss against du Plessis, Bareman admitted he was happy with how the Nigerian-Kiwi was handling the setback, however, touched on his failure to get over his decision upset to rival, Strickland.
“He’s (Israel Adesanya) handling it well and you’re right, I love the way he loses, I actually prefer the way he loses than the way he wins,” Eugene Bareman told the ‘Who the f*ck are these guys’ podcast. “I’m not a big fan of some of the ways that he wins but I’m definitely a big fan of the way he loses.”
“The (Sean) Strickland loss, he will never get over [the defeat],” Bareman explained. “He just fought badly it was just unexplainable, it’s intangible. It’s not measurable what caused it, you just go down the rabbit hole of a million things.”
Off the back of his second straight blemish — which is the first time Adesanya has sunk to a two-fight skid in his decorated mixed martial arts career, the City Kickboxing striker has been linked with a slew of future returns to action.
Namely, the former champion has been tied to a clash with surging top-5 contender, Caio Borralho, as well as a high-stakes matchup opposite the winner of next month’s UFC Paris co-headliner between Nassourdine Imavov, and Brendan Allen.
